12 Jun 2025 - Nitzer Ebb - Murderous

This would be a special edition - because their lead vocalist, Douglas McCarthy, died yesterday at age 58 - which is way too young.  He toured with the band until last year, when his health issues (cirrosis from excessive drinking earlier in life, for one) took their toll. 

He will be missed,

But we had to do a post today anyway, so this seemed like the best idea, and Nitzer Ebb is a band that I always kind of liked, but didn't think about too much.  

And let's talk about the music.  Pioneers of the industrial wave of music, the band chose a name that sounded German without actually using German words.... so everyone thought they were German.  They weren't.  They were from the UK. 

This 1986 song is one of my favorites by them.  It is both danceable and moshable, which is kind of a tough line to straddle. 

Industrial music is kind of a weird genre.  It's both poppy electronic dance music and angry, heavy music.  Rarely is that made more clear than in this 2023 live show.

11 June 2025 (Special Edition) - The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice

You know I hate the special editions.

Brian Wilson passed away today.  He won numerous awards, including two Grammys (on nine nominations)

His masterpiece was Pet Sounds, and this song, which led the album, featured his lead vocals.  It might have also led to some of his mental health collapse as he left the touring part of his career behind.   His wife - Melinda Ledbetter, who passed away last year - helped him finally get the care he needed and got him making music again - and touring. 

His brilliant songwriting will be sorely missed.   

11 June 2025 - Jorge Ben Jor– Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)

A striker typically plays further up the pitch from midfielders and defenders.  They are sometime called forwards or attackers.  We're talking about football here, by the way - and not American football, but the sport North American English speakers insist upon calling "soccer".   

Why the soccer lesson up front?

Because this 1976 song is about a striker.  

The song, considered by many to be the greatest ever written about a sport, was considered by Rolling Stone to be one of the 500 greatest songs of all time, a list dominated by English-language songs.  This song is very much in Portuguese. 

You might have noticed that I called this a "1976" song.  It was.  It's on his album África Brasil, which is an absolutely incredible album.  However, the song rose to fame in 1989, when David Byrne included it on Brazil Classics Vol. 1, and this video made the heavy rotation on VH1.  

He was known as Jorge Ben until the late 1980s, and changed his name allegedly because a chunk of the royalties for this song accidentally went to singer George Benson.  I don't know if that's true, but if you look at the title of this post, I ain't taking any chances with his royalties. 

Jorge Ben Jor is WELL into his 80s.

He STILL performs.  Here he is - aged 84, two years ago - performing the song, and playing the lead guitar, and bringing the energy!  But also, this is 11 songs into his set!  And he kept going!!!!

6 June 2025 - Amyl and The Sniffers - Chewing Gum (and an Easter egg)

Let's talk about Amyl and The Sniffers. 

They're a great, GREAT live band from Melbourne, Australia who have started to reach an international audience with their raucous, loud, energetic style.  Their third album, Cartoon Darkness, was met with universal acclaim, and deservedly so - it's fun and not like anything else being released. 

On the day that album was released, they also released what would end up being the second single - this clever song that is actually one of their quieter ones.  Give 'em a go!

Although the band was formed in and based in Melbourne, half the band now calls Los Angelas home, so it was a short flight over no oceans to get to the KEXP studios in Seattle to perform this song live.

And, as I am writing this - and I didn't write this ahead of time.  It was written this morning - this performance is from this March but the video was literally posted an hour ago - so you get to see it RIGHT when it's released. 

See what I mean about them being a great live band?

5 June 2025 - Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You)

Future Islands is a power-pop group that eschews the guitar and replaces it with solid synth.

This song, from their 4th album Singles, was the consensus best single of 2014, and I totally get it.  It's strong yet beautiful, forceful and emotional. 

It's a great song.

Their debut television performance of the song in 2014 was on The Late Show With David Letterman, and let's be honest, I posted this song for THIS performance. 

It's legendary.... if not for just the dancing, or Sam Herring's death metal growls.   

But also, don't they have the look of a band that, well, any of us could be in?  They're just normal guys.

4 June 2025 - Lionel Richie - Stuck On You

Lionel Richie's 1983 album Can't Slow Down yielded five US Top 10 hits - all five of them also hits worldwide.   Four of them were blandish 80's pop songs that you likely know.  One was a county-pop masterpiece.

"Stuck on You". written by Richie, was the 4th single from the album, and it was very different.  It would be also his first trip to the US Country Music charts - which is just wild. 

It's a very sweet love song, and the best thing on Can't Slow Down.

So when he performed the song more than 30 years later - and not only sang but played piano - it's not a shock that music fans from all walks know the words. 

But also, Lionel Richie is probably better known by the kids today as an American Idol judge.... and he joined his other two judges on the season finale this year to reprise a song that sounds more country than most modern counrty music.   

And it was pretty amazing. 

3 June 2025 - Courtney Barnett - Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party

I was always a little afraid to give Australian artist Courtney Barnett a try.  I can't give you a good reason why.  I think her debut album - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit - was so universally acclaimed that I was intimidated to even give it a try. 

I need not have been.  As part of my 1000-albums-in-a-year project, I listened to that album.

That album is one of the best I have ever heard, and certainly the best I've heard so far on my list.  This fun song was a highlight for me.

In a first for this blog....

The way a music video usually works is - the artist is lip-syncing and the studio version of the song is dubbed over top - and they certainly did the dubbing for this video...... but it wasn't a lip-sync.  She REALLY performed the song, and posted the original recording as well. 

Shockingly, Barnett and her band have performed this song A LOT, and they all sound impeccable and pretty much the same....

Except for this one, an acoustic version by just her, which is somehow just as thrilling.